Tuesday 15 February 2011

Microsoft Lync vs Your PBX

In the times of Microsoft Office Communications Server (R1 & R2) things were really simple and clear: OCS is not a replacement for your PBX... So what is it? Well, you know, lightweight ad-hoc peer-to-peer voice, some audio conferencing in LiveMeeting... but by all means, keep your PBX! You can have Remote Call Control/TR.87 and it's there to preserve your investment in the PBX and add UC capability to it (seamlessly?!).


So, in the olden OCS 2007 R2 days, as a Unified Communications Architect, I would visit customers to tell them about OCS voice capabilities, and they would rightly push back with the following arguments:

  • "But it doesn't support Call Admission Control!" - a very valid point. We all understand that RTAudio is a self-adjusting codec but still, don't tell me that you can have 1Mbps links between sites and accommodate 100 concurrent calls! It is clear that they are all going to suffer. TICK! Lync now provides Call Admission Control...
  • "But it doesn't support survivable site telephony!" - another valid point but I never considered that a biggie for the small remote sites: let's assume you have your primary connection from Small Site to Big Site via a high speed WAN link, and a backup ADSL Internet connection (a floating static route, may or may not use IPSec) for peanuts-a-month. RTAudio *would* work across the Internet - clearly, there may be voice degradation but hey!, it costs nothing and still works for the limited period of time when your primary link is down! Anyways, TICK!, Lync now supports that as well...
  • "But I can't predict how much bandwidth I will need!" - may be valid; still, if you had QoS and provisioned roughly 50Kbps per call - especially now - TICK!, with Lync Call Admissions Control, you've got your estimates for voice traffic... and yeah, you can calculate Erlangs, too.
  • "But it doesn't support manager/PA functionality!" - TICK!, Lync supports manager/delegate scenarios...
  • "But I want it as a service - I get Centrex from my voice provider!" - very valid point, and TICK!, Lync is soon to be part of Microsoft Office 365, which is obviously a Cloud/Utility based service...
  • "But it doesn't support PSTN Dial-in into Audio conferences..." - A BIG showstopper, if you are asking me. TICK!, Lync does that as well!



So, come 2010 and Microsoft Lync, and things are clear again: Bin your PBX, as Lync has it all and does it all, and it costs less!


Or is it as straightforward as that? Let me know your thoughts.


Regards,
Dob

Hello to Everyone Interested in Unified Communications in the Cloud!

Hello Everyone, and Welcome to the Unified Communications in the Cloud Blog!


This blog is designed as a dedicated space for both Unified Communications business users, and consultants alike to:
- Share ideas and comment on other peoples' ideas
- Exchange information about Unified Communications in the Cloud
- Establish contacts


Also, this blog is meant to be vendor and product agnostic: we'll certainly be discussing specific vendor solutions but would strongly encourage everyone posting here to remain neutral in their recommendations, or at least provide reasonable justification for giving advantage to a particular side.


Thanks again for visiting us, and please feel free to raise your voice. 


Happy blogging!


Dob Todorov
Consulting Partner/Beyondix